Fast-rising Sky Ferreira asserts herself on debut album

Sky Ferreira swears that the two most memorable songs on her new debut were written and recorded before her recent run-in with the law. It’s hard to hear “Nobody Asked Me (If I Was Okay)” and “I Blame Myself” (“for my reputation,” she eventually admits in the chorus) without thinking they’re a commentary on the emotional upheaval the rising pop singer endured a few months ago. She and her boyfriend, Zachary Cole Smith, who fronts the band DIIV, were arrested in mid-September for drug possession. She had ecstasy on her, and he was carrying heroin.

By indie-rock standards, it was a minor scandal, compounded by Ferreira suffering a hemorrhage on her vocal cords not long afterward that forced her to cancel some tour dates opening for Vampire Weekend.

All of which suggests now is a good time to pose that question Ferreira wishes everyone had asked her: Is she OK?